Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I have been trying to install Linux on my thinkpad w701, seemingly all Linux distros aren’t stable nor do work, I am simply looking for a light alternative to windows, which is easy to Install, and works with the Thinkpad w701, so far I’ve tried arch based distros (arch, endeavour os using kde) and a Debian based distro (Mx Linux using xfce), any recommendations on what I can use?


If not, preferably can anyone teach me how to solve the problems I’m dealing with, on arch based, my graphics always get bricked, and on Debian, it simply won’t boot, ive also tried raw Debian (xfce) but there were a lot of glitches and instability.


Thanks.

Did you use the open-source Noveau driver, or the proprietary nVidia one?

axur-delmeria wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:37 am

Did you use the open-source Noveau driver, or the proprietary nVidia one?

Open source noveau.

DKG wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 04, 2025 5:46 pm

Open source noveau.

That's probably the cause of your issues. Noveau's hardware support is spotty because its developers have to reverse-engineer the inner workings of GPUs because nVidia refuses to provide support.

You really need to use the closed-source driver.

axur-delmeria wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 05, 2025 1:24 am

That's probably the cause of your issues. Noveau's hardware support is spotty because its developers have to reverse-engineer the inner workings of GPUs because nVidia refuses to provide support.

Unfortunately the closed source NVIDIA linux drivers haven't been updated for many years now... There are community patches to get them to work with newer kernel versions but eventually it will probably just not work... That's my main gripe with the W70x unfortunately.

Plunkyy wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 05, 2025 3:44 pm

Unfortunately the closed source NVIDIA linux drivers haven't been updated for many years now... There are community patches to get them to work with newer kernel versions but eventually it will probably just not work... That's my main gripe with the W70x unfortunately.

That's unfortunate. I avoid nVidia stuff whenever possible as I use Linux primarily in my computers. I've already experienced breakages with out-of-tree modules for WiFi cards after kernel updates, having the same happen with graphics drivers would be even more infuriating.

That said, I did test a GT 730 Fermi on a desktop for a bit, until I discovered I couldn't even use half of its features or get it up to full clock speed with noveau.